Patent Document 1 (JP2004-227121A) discloses techniques for managing home electric products and the like over a network using HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) as an HTTP communication system.
Patent Document 1 describes that when an access point located within an indoor network has an address which is accessible from the outside, the access point is susceptible to unauthorized actions and implies problems in regard to the security as well.
Patent Document 1 also proposes a polling approach as a method which does not require that access points be installed indoors. According to Patent Document 1, when the polling approach is employed, an extra server is installed on an external network for confirming whether or not a request has been made, and this server received query from an indoor communication device as appropriate to confirm whether or not an operation request has been made. However, if such a configuration is employed, communication must be made each time the confirmation is made. Thus, if the confirmation is frequently made for a short time period in order to responsibly process a given control request with good responsibility, this confirmation will entail an immense communication cost.
Patent Document 1 describes an invention, based on the premise of the foregoing facts, which comprises an ASP (Application Service Provider) server installed outdoors, a communication device connected to an indoor network, and a terminal device capable of connecting to the ASP server, where the ASP server includes a signal receiver for receiving a control signal from an operation terminal, and upon receipt of a reception request from the communication device, the ASP server suspends a response to the reception request until it receives a control signal from the operation terminal, and upon receipt of the control signal from the terminal device at the signal receiver, transmits a response including information on this signal to the communication device.
Patent Document 1: JP2004-227121A